Yesterday I wrote of the slaughter of the Palestinian children and women by the Israeli government. I asked people to assume that one million people lived on Nantucket and it was under attack. That I said was the situation in Gaza where the people might as well have been on an island.

They cannot escape. All roads out are blocked. All people are confined and are subject to being attacked. Leaflets are dropped directing the population to go to different areas that will be safe. Unfortunately, they will be safe unless the Israeli army thinks otherwise and then they will not be as happened yesterday when it attacked the U.N. compound where 3,000 people took refuge and a market place.

It turned out I was over generous in my estimation relative to Nantucket. Israel has pushed the Palestinians out of 44% of its area in the Gaza. The map shows the new area from which it erased the Palestinians. Therefore we should look at Nantucket as having 1.8 million people who are being bombarded every hour by air, artillery, sea and tanks.

As to the area the Palestinians have been forced out of:“These were crowded neighborhoods less than three weeks ago. Now they have been literally depopulated, the residents joining more than 160,000 internally displaced people in refuges and makeshift shelters. Apartment blocks are fields of rubble, and as I move through this hostile landscape the phrase that keeps ringing in my head is “scorched earth.” Israel has turned it into: “uninhabitable no-man’s land of half-standing, burned-out buildings, broken concrete and twisted metal.” Israel has also destroyed the only power plant in Gaza which supplies much of the electricity for its water and other needs.

The Israeli propaganda machine is at full force explaining how the attack was necessary because Hamas was launching missiles into Israel. Israel leaders say their goal is to wipe out the missiles, and the tunnels, and Hamas. As usual all American leaders are in full support of the Israeli action as is most of America’s mainstream media. We continue to supply the weapons Israel needs to eliminate the Palestinians living in Gaza.

Now the figure of the dead women and children is well over 700 and there has not been one Israeli women or children killed. Even with that we have no figure for the thousands who are wounded in body; nor for the tens of thousands who are wounded in mind. I ask you to imagine having your child or grand child suffering as the Palestian kids are suffering. They have been under bombardment for three weeks. There is no way to justify this destruction of a people.

Israel has a right to defend itself but it has no right to terrorize a people which it is doing.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines terrorism as: “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”

But it is worse than that. Part II explains why this is a unique horror.